What is the deal with the insane Bellingham housing market?? (Seattle: transplants, violent crime)

[homesinseattle]

Agree to a point. That Fairhaven district of Bham is pretty wonderful and there is nothing like that Whatcom Falls Park in Seattle. The proximity to Vancouver for day trips is pretty great as well.

[StealthRabbit]

Originally Posted by homesinseattle

Agree to a point. That Fairhaven district of Bham is pretty wonderful and there is nothing like that Whatcom Falls Park in Seattle. The proximity to Vancouver for day trips is pretty great as well.

Proximity to BC is a huge plus.

Camping, fishing, skiing, Gulf Islands, Okanagan, Vancouver Island.

+ The international culture and colleges of BC.

[CrazyDonkey]

Originally Posted by mayfair

There's one tiny religious hospital for the whole county.

It's religious, but I wouldn't call it "tiny". It has 251 beds, close to 400,000 clinic visits, and Cancer, Cardiovascular, Joint Replacement, Spine Care, Behavioral Health Inpatient, Childbirth, and Robotic Surgery Centers.

I was born in St. Joseph's in 1947, so it is longstanding.

[mayfair]

Originally Posted by homesinseattle

That Fairhaven district of Bham is pretty wonderful and there is nothing like that Whatcom Falls Park in Seattle.

The Olympic pipeline (Cherry Point to Portland) runs through Whatcom Falls park and was the site of a tragic and major spill/explosion (3 people died and a wall of fire headed through the park, blowing out windows and destroying the wastewater plant) in 99. This is an older pipeline that has been prone to problems.

https://cob.org/services/environment...eline-incident

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympi...line_explosion

This same pipeline, further south, is currently leaking gasoline in Conway.

https://apnews.com/article/olympic-p...d6b3139c699816

[rkcarguy]

Originally Posted by CrazyDonkey

It's religious, but I wouldn't call it "tiny". It has 251 beds, close to 400,000 clinic visits, and Cancer, Cardiovascular, Joint Replacement, Spine Care, Behavioral Health Inpatient, Childbirth, and Robotic Surgery Centers.

I was born in St. Joseph's in 1947, so it is longstanding.

It's currently getting a much needed expansion. With likely over 250K people now in the county, ONE hospital isn't cutting it. Everyone was saying New Yorks 2.5 beds per 1,000 residents was so bad when Covid came out, we had half that here. Now if we can just clean up crime and get some affordable housing for those that don't make $200K+ a year, we'll have some doctors and staff in that new expansion.

[saturno_v]

Originally Posted by mayfair

Yeah, but if that trend continues, it won't be like that for long.

I tend to agree...any parallel between Seattle and Bellingham is far far fetched. Bham does not have even a fraction of the social venues and restaurant scene of Seattle (which is not that great to begin with).
The closeness to BC is another dubious point to justify significant premium to RE prices IMHO, there are no shortage of beautiful hiking spots (lakes, mountains, etc...) all across Western Washington state.

[halcyon1999]

The west coast seems to be the most expensive area in the country, the further inland you go in west coast states the cheaper it gets but only considered cheaper by west coast standards, expensive by everywhere else standards. The mild weather and terrible zoning laws creates a combo of desirability and not enough housing, leading to insanely high prices on everything. From Bellingham, WA all the way down to San Diego, CA, it's all extremely expensive. The price of pacific coastal living

[saturno_v]

Originally Posted by halcyon1999

The west coast seems to be the most expensive area in the country, the further inland you go in west coast states the cheaper it gets but only considered cheaper by west coast standards, expensive by everywhere else standards. The mild weather and terrible zoning laws creates a combo of desirability and not enough housing, leading to insanely high prices on everything. From Bellingham, WA all the way down to San Diego, CA, it's all extremely expensive. The price of pacific coastal living

I agree but actually San Diego is not as expensive as its magnificent geographical position may suggest.
It was my first choice to buy a retirement home until I discovered that its ocean waters are actually not swimmable (you need a wetsuit even in summer).

[bartonizer]

Originally Posted by saturno_v

Ohh, I agree that Settle is expensive but at least there is some justification for this because Seattle is such powerful economic powerhouse....when I did mention "fundamentals" I meant in relation to a local economy.

This West Seattle house is currently standing unsold at $1.35 mil, they recently knocked down the price....still not selling.

Stunning Puget Sound and Olympic Mountains view, you are at a walking distance from the beach, shops, restaurants and you have literally 15 minutes commute downtown if you work in Seattle....You can avoid a car if you want to.

There are two separate kitchens, actually a young couple could rent out the lower floor as a "mortgage helper" as they say in Vancouver BC.

I guess, good luck to these Bellingham houses trying to sell at almost similar prices.

Did the restaurant scene improve in Bellingham in recent years?? It was not exactly great AFAIR.

The thing surprised me about Tampa but also Charleston (another city we did look into) is that not everything nailed to the ground took off like a rocket....you cant still buy a 150K home in Tampa....sure it would be a total piece of crap but you can......crapboxes are recognized and priced as such.

I think you're overvaluing the proximity to the workplace, as well as the quality of the homes themselves as they factor into some peoples' decision-making process. In today's environment, though people are motivated to live where they want to, not where they have to be within a (relatively) short distance of an office. Do you think the people seeking out Bellingham aren't familiar with Seattle?

For the other qualities of the houses you referenced, I'm not trying to be rude, but I am wondering how familiar you are with Bellingham. For the first two houses, they've got many of the same appealing qualities that you suggest are unique to Seattle: Mountain/Island views, walking distance to water, shops, and restaurants. In fact, to some degree I'd assert that in many ways Fairhaven is a more impressive and accessible destination to south Bellingham homes than any one particular area is to West Seattle. Note: I'm not suggesting that Bellingham has a better restaurant scene than Seattle, or more big-league amenities.

Also, Seattle's geography often isolates neighborhoods from other parts of the city, and many of my Seattle friends that live in Ballard mostly stick around Ballard. My Cap Hill friends usually stick around Cap Hill. Many of my friends in Seattle like visiting Bellingham and echo what homesinseattle hears. They say it gives them the vibe of Seattle 20-30 years ago. That doesn't mean that they think everything has a parallel, it just reminds them of a feeling they had decades ago, That's their observation; it doesn't have to match yours.

Now, to be fair I DO think it's easy to view Bellingham as a bit of an industrial town - or not quite get the appeal - if you're someone who's lived in WA for a long time and not really visited in a while or paid attention to what's going on. But I'd posit that Bellingham has developed a clear cachet for itself as an outdoors adventure town, with several groups of people that find it desirable and can afford to live here. There are plenty of people out there that can buy $250k MB sprinter vans, and many of them would much rather live in the middle of Bellingham than Seattle. They can also afford $1M homes, and a multitude of $5-10k mountain bikes.

As to your comment about many places feeling like Bellingham in Western WA, I disagree. Sure, some elements of the city and culture are common across the region, but there aren't many other small-to-medium-sized cities that are scenic and NOT part of suburban Seattle. Again, I think you're viewing it through a particular lens, but the idea that it's only retirees with money who want to live here isn't accurate. There's a lot of demand for cities like Bend, OR, Bozeman, Missoula, Asheville, Flagstaff, Santa Fe, etc. Does that mean that there's more overall demand for Bellingham than Seattle? No. But there's enough to affect the limited housing inventory here, that's for sure.

[saturno_v]

Originally Posted by bartonizer

I think you're overvaluing the proximity to the workplace, as well as the quality of the homes themselves as they factor into some peoples' decision-making process. In today's environment, though people are motivated to live where they want to, not where they have to be within a (relatively) short distance of an office. Do you think the people seeking out Bellingham aren't familiar with Seattle?

For the other qualities of the houses you referenced, I'm not trying to be rude, but I am wondering how familiar you are with Bellingham. For the first two houses, they've got many of the same appealing qualities that you suggest are unique to Seattle: Mountain/Island views, walking distance to water, shops, and restaurants. In fact, to some degree I'd assert that in many ways Fairhaven is a more impressive and accessible destination to south Bellingham homes than any one particular area is to West Seattle. Note: I'm not suggesting that Bellingham has a better restaurant scene than Seattle, or more big-league amenities.

Also, Seattle's geography often isolates neighborhoods from other parts of the city, and many of my Seattle friends that live in Ballard mostly stick around Ballard. My Cap Hill friends usually stick around Cap Hill. Many of my friends in Seattle like visiting Bellingham and echo what homesinseattle hears. They say it gives them the vibe of Seattle 20-30 years ago. That doesn't mean that they think everything has a parallel, it just reminds them of a feeling they had decades ago, That's their observation; it doesn't have to match yours.

Now, to be fair I DO think it's easy to view Bellingham as a bit of an industrial town - or not quite get the appeal - if you're someone who's lived in WA for a long time and not really visited in a while or paid attention to what's going on. But I'd posit that Bellingham has developed a clear cachet for itself as an outdoors adventure town, with several groups of people that find it desirable and can afford to live here. There are plenty of people out there that can buy $250k MB sprinter vans, and many of them would much rather live in the middle of Bellingham than Seattle. They can also afford $1M homes, and a multitude of $5-10k mountain bikes.

As to your comment about many places feeling like Bellingham in Western WA, I disagree. Sure, some elements of the city and culture are common across the region, but there aren't many other small-to-medium-sized cities that are scenic and NOT part of suburban Seattle. Again, I think you're viewing it through a particular lens, but the idea that it's only retirees with money who want to live here isn't accurate. There's a lot of demand for cities like Bend, OR, Bozeman, Missoula, Asheville, Flagstaff, Santa Fe, etc. Does that mean that there's more overall demand for Bellingham than Seattle? No. But there's enough to affect the limited housing inventory here, that's for sure.

I have not visited Bellingham in quite few years (my stepson went to college in Bham so at some point I was going up there often) maybe things changed for the better, I will try to stop by next time and see it for myself.

A lot of these desirable little towns got a boost from the pandemic mania "I can work from anywhere, never to set foot on an office again" and now they are experiencing a bit of a pull back, quite few people stuck with their overpriced homes in quaint towns now forced to rent in Seattle (at least two in my circle of acquaintances) when the office called them back.

Obviously at the end it's all matter of personal preferences. Personally I'm not interested in buying a house in Bellingham at any price since I already live in Seattle where I have any PNW outdoor experience I want at easy reach and the social and cultural venues/restaurant scene is vastly superior (no comparison really).
To me a vacation home has to represent enough of a change in scenery.